l88 FOLLOW THE WHALE 



cover the activities on Long Island. In addition to these formal regu- 

 lations, a wealth of strictly enforced custom also grew up. For in- 

 stance, no food or drink was allowed aboard the boats while they 

 were at sea, on the grounds that the men required their every fac- 

 ulty during the chase. 



The Indians were paid in clothing, powder and shot, liquor, and 

 sometimes in whale oil. In fact, whale oil was used as currency and 

 there are records of debts being settled in this medium, and even of 

 ministers and schoolteachers being paid their salaries in oil, which 

 was valued at from one pound ten shillings to two pounds per bar- 

 rel. The Indians usually refused to cooperate unless they were 

 promised at least some liquor, and they often also requested certain 

 parts of the whale. There are records of their handing over title 

 to their lands in exchange for a few trade goods and a guarantee 

 that they might have the tail flukes and flippers of all whales landed, 

 together with permission to make what use they liked of whatever 

 was left of the corpse after the colonists had taken what they de- 

 sired. 



At the same time strict laws were enacted to protect the Indians 

 engaged in whaling. New York State passed legislation in 1708 

 which completely protected all Indians with whaling contracts from 

 being arrested or hindered in any other way while engaged in this 

 work. An earlier ordinance stipulated, "Whosoever hires an Indian 

 to go a-whaling shall not give him above one trucking cloath coat 

 for each whale he and his company shall kill, or half the blubber 

 without the whalebone." In most places the red man was highly re- 

 garded as a whaler, and was paid handsome wages for his help. 



When a whale was landed in the early days, the whole community 

 helped in cutting it up. Later, however, the job fell to the crew 

 who had killed it, and this usually took them about a week, work- 

 ing night and day. The corpse was floated inshore to the beach, 

 and first the Hps were stripped off so that the baleen could be ex- 

 tracted. Next, the head was cut off, and then strips of the blubber 

 were peeled from the body from neck to tail with block and tackle. 

 The body was turned over at high tides. The blubber then had to 

 be cut into small strips to go into the try kettles, which were large 

 iron pots of about 250 gallons' capacity. These were set on stone or 

 brick structures under which a fire was started with wood. The 



